KEEP ON SHOOTING ARROWS
«Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers» (Ephesians 6:18, NLT).
When Elisha was ill, King Joash went to visit him. The Syrians had attacked Israel and weakened their military power. In this context, the king went to him to receive a last word from the prophet. Elisha instructed him to open the window and shoot an arrow to the East (toward Aphek, the most strategic point between Damascus and Samaria, where Ahab had defeated the Syrians a few years before).
Once the king shot the arrow, Elisha said, «The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for you must strike the Syrians at Aphek till you have destroyed them» (2 Kings 13:17). After assuring him victory, Elisha asked the king to do something the ground. Shooting an arrow in the direction of an enemy country was common tice; it symbolized a declaration of war. However, when Elisha he could not understand, the king was not willing. Perhaps thinking he would look like fool, or that it was not worthy of a king, Joash only shot three arrows. Elisha got mad and said, «You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it. But now you will strike Syria only three times» (2 Kings 13:19).
That is similar to our prayer life. You have to make an effort to shoot arrows. The king should have kept on going, even if he did not understand or did not get immediate results. His problem was pride and lack of persistence. prayer is a spiritual weapon of war. We often make excuses: «I don’t know how to pray,» «I don’t see my prayers working,» «I seem like a fool repeating the same request.» If we give up, we will not receive the full victory God wants to give us. Perhaps we have been praying to overcome a character defect for years, or for a loved one’s salvation, and we do not see any results, but Elisha’s message is clear: keep on shooting arrows. are times in our lives in which we do not see the direct and the enemy wants us to think God did not hear us or did not care,» writes Cindy Jacobs. «That is never so, even if we do not see immediate answers or the results we anticipated.» Keep on shooting arrows; you are taller when kneeling down. Do not give up!
Dear Lord, please help me to persist in prayer, even when I do not see immediate results.
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Take From: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2022
«NO FEARS»
BY: VANEZA PISSUTO
Collaborators: Alexandra Pérez & Angelica Cuate.